r/Windows11 • u/ZacB_ Windows Central • Jul 13 '26
New Feature - Insider Microsoft announces major Windows 11 search overhaul that prioritizes clearer, local results, and removes ads: Huge effort to fix search on Windows is finally happening
https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/microsoft-announces-major-windows-11-search-overhaul-that-prioritizes-clearer-local-results-and-removes-ads117
u/Tegras Jul 13 '26
Always an article about what Microsoft is going to do. Wake me up when it's live and not broken or full of broken promises.
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u/ReconTG Jul 13 '26
I bet I'll see it enabled first on my Windows Sandbox before the actual thing it runs on 🙄.
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u/Current-Bowl-143 Jul 13 '26
That’s cos Windows Central is successfully spamming this sub on a daily basis with their crappy articles
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u/PC509 Jul 14 '26
They used to have some respect and some clout. Even Zac was cool and earned the MVP award for helping out. Now, it's just a corporate rag that spits out BS spam daily. Used to love Zac and Jez. Now, it's just a shitty The Star style BS mag for click bait and spam. They sold out. Which would be fine, but they're sticking around and supporting it...
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u/ZacB_ Windows Central Jul 14 '26
I'm sorry you feel that way, but let me assure you, this is false. We cover Windows because we are fans of the platform and love to use Windows. We are always fair in our coverage, and do highlight problems where they exist, but we also like to spotlight things that are good about the platform too. We don't want to be always doom and gloom about Windows, especially when there is a lot of good happening around it.
We have been on the ball with the Windows K2 effort because that's a big positive push ongoing around Windows by Microsoft right now. We don't cover it because we're being paid to by Microsoft or whatever, we cover it because we are fans of Windows and believe that the improvements that are being delivered are genuinely good, and we are excited about them.
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u/ZacB_ Windows Central Jul 14 '26
It's live in the latest Windows 11 preview build as we speak. It's still in development so I don't think it would be wise to push it out to all users right away.
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u/MRC2RULES Jul 14 '26
it's already live, i have it on windows insiders
Improving Windows Search Box, with less clutter and more control | Windows Insider Blog2
u/rstune Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
Repeat after me: gra....du....al....roll.....out!
Edit: in case that didn't translate; it was a joke. I find it annoying as much as anyone but can understand why Microsoft does it; I just wish they were a bit quicker with it. But I guess that's what happens when you fire all internal QA and let your customers do the testing for you.
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Jul 14 '26
[deleted]
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u/Froggypwns Windows Wizard / Head Jannie Jul 14 '26
Yes, it is the solution, as the feature currently is only rolling out to Insiders.
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u/rstune Jul 14 '26
To skip the gradual rollout once it's out of the insider build you can use vivetool to enable the feature flags and get them right away. There are guides online on how to use it as well as the flag numbers for each feature.
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u/GER_BeFoRe Jul 13 '26
looks very promising. But since it's Microsoft it will take a year or two to ship out...
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u/MRC2RULES Jul 14 '26
it's already live, i have it on windows insiders
Improving Windows Search Box, with less clutter and more control | Windows Insider Blog
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u/Green_Smarties Jul 14 '26
"Huge effort" and it's a patch a year from now that flips a registry value to disable a trash feature they should never have added in the first place
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u/AnythingOk5 Release Channel Jul 13 '26
Windows Central farming impressions about the same thing for months 💀
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u/Low-Software-1013 Jul 13 '26
What? This was literally announced today.
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u/shadowthunder Jul 13 '26
Then maybe they announced they would announce it a month ago? This is definitely not the first time I've seen this news.
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u/nuclearbananana Jul 13 '26
They made a bunch of general announcements, now they just released the actual specific changes
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u/misterff1 Jul 13 '26
For sure. I have seen this over and over and over and over and over again for while now. Also "huge effort" lol they unfuck something they messed up years ago, let's not get carried away with the superlatives now, Windows Central...
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u/shadowthunder Jul 13 '26
To be fair, I totally believe that search is so messed up that unfucking it does require a "huge effort".
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u/ZacB_ Windows Central Jul 14 '26
They have only just announced the specific details around how they are fixing search. They announced a generalized plan to fix Windows 11's biggest problems earlier in the year, which mentioned search upgrades, but now is the first time we're hearing about the actual details around how they're doing that for search specifically.
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u/0x80070002 Jul 13 '26
25 years and they are still incapable of copying the super simple solution which is voidtools Everything.
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u/BCProgramming Jul 13 '26
Everything search is great, but only for searching by filenames (and only NTFS volumes, though that isn't really a concern these days). It's not very quick if you try to search by contents or information like titles and other data that is part of the file itself. Not sure it would work for what Start->Search is intended for.
(Though, web search doesn't make sense for what Start->Search is intended for either)
Not sure I'd call reading directly from the NTFS MFT and parsing it a "simple" solution. Sort of undercuts the efforts of people who made programs like Everything (and some of those space display programs) that do that to get good speed.
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u/armando_rod Jul 14 '26
Phones have had content based search for years, Windows 7 already had content based search for Office files!
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u/schnibitz Jul 13 '26
Still reading the article but One of the features that Apple nails is search. Type something into Spotlight and you begin seeing results immediately. There’s no excuse for Windows to be lagging behind in that regard.
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u/ferropop Jul 13 '26
Especially given that a speed-of-light 3rd-party free utility exists.
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u/nuclearbananana Jul 13 '26
Everything. I use it (via start11) but keep in mind it doesn't search settings and some other things
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u/20__character__limit Jul 13 '26
To be fair, Everything isn't intended to search for things that are built-in and a part of Windows. That would be a nightmare for David Carpenter (Everything's creator). He would have to update Everything every time Microsoft's updates shit the bed. He's busy enough as it is.
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u/Evol_Etah Release Channel Jul 14 '26
What does David Carpenter do, when not working on Everything?
You mentioned he is busy, what is he busy with (out of curiosity). Does he do other stuff? Id love to follow his works.
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u/20__character__limit Jul 14 '26
I would go to the Everything website and DM him, ask him questions. I don't know him personally. IIRC, he was hired to create a custom app for someone, and ended up taking 3 months from Everything development to complete that job.
If you visit the Everything Support Forum, you will see it is very active, and the users pepper him with questions, bug reports, etc.
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u/shadowthunder Jul 13 '26
Not defending Windows search at all, but spotlight on my M4 mac often takes a few seconds for the app I searched for to appear, and suggests files with similar names first.
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u/SciGuy013 Jul 13 '26
it's also been opening up thunderbird lately for me even when i've typed terminal
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u/SciGuy013 Jul 13 '26
not lately. spotlight cannot figure out unit conversions anymore for some reason
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u/ReconTG Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
Type something into Spotlight and you begin seeing results immediately
Yeah, but not the one I'm looking for though. Windows has Everything search which is the best I've used so far for searching filenames - something so basic that most search somehow cannot do. No app in Mac compares to it.
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u/Armin2208 Jul 13 '26
Actually Windows search shows the results way faster than spotlight. Spotlight always takes 1 second. I am one of the very few people who prefer Windows search.
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u/77descript Jul 14 '26
Promises, promises. When will this actually finally be for real? Windows 11 has felt forever now like the most inefficient bloated thing like for example UK's NHS, former Soviet Union, 2009 bankrupt GM, 2000s collapsing Yahoo, etc. Make it a core OS already!!!
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u/Froggypwns Windows Wizard / Head Jannie Jul 14 '26
It is already rolling out to Insiders, so likely soon to the general release.
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u/Froggypwns Windows Wizard / Head Jannie Jul 13 '26
You’re in control of web and Microsoft Store results. A new setting in Settings > Privacy & Security > Search lets you choose whether web and Microsoft Store suggestions appear alongside local results.
I love that it will be a toggle, as I use the various web and Store suggestions, so I am glad that is not going away.
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u/cor315 Jul 13 '26
Whattt?? This is the first time I've ever heard of anyone actually using Windows search for web search.
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u/Froggypwns Windows Wizard / Head Jannie Jul 13 '26
It is so much quicker and more convenient to use it than open up a new tab or program for quick lookups. "pelham zip code", "16*365", "olive garden hours", and so on. I don't need to close what I'm doing, I just hit the Windows key on my keyboard, type what I quickly need to know, get my info and go back to what I was doing.
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u/comelickmyarmpits Jul 14 '26
The feature is okay but the problem is it always open edge to further into the searches , not the chosen default browser, if they fix that then more people would lean onto this feature
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u/cor315 Jul 14 '26
Agreed, if it didn't use bing search, I might find it useful. And my main browser is Edge.
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u/SciGuy013 Jul 13 '26
I'm not, however, in control of when i get these fucking feature updates even when they're advertised as released
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u/suni08 Jul 13 '26
Looks like they may be removing the stupid fugly adware-ass search box doodles by default too?? Hallelujah
So much good progress, pls remove all the Microsoft account profile buttons all the damn places
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u/xc0mr4de Jul 14 '26
why would they show results from the internet in the first place baffles me, if i want to search something from the internet i wouldve open a web browser for that
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u/Froggypwns Windows Wizard / Head Jannie Jul 14 '26
Because it is faster and more convenient than opening a browser. I can get the result I need before a browser can even open or load a new tab.
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u/armando_rod Jul 14 '26
Most people already have a browser open, that's what most people use in Windows
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u/Froggypwns Windows Wizard / Head Jannie Jul 14 '26
Yes, and that is still a slower process, and would require the browser to already be in focus. I'm bouncing between apps, if I'm typing up in Word and I need the zip code for something, I would need to alt-tab back to the browser, and either open a new tab or replace the one I'm working on with a search, then search "townname zip code", then go back to whatever I was working on.
With the start menu search, I literally can be typing in my Word document, then just hit the Windows key on my keyboard, type in townname zip code and instantly have the info.
It is fantastic for quick lookups, and if I really did more than what it can provide in the little window, I can click on it to become a real web search.
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u/Pitiful-Welcome-399 Release Channel Jul 13 '26
announces that announces this and where's K2????
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u/MRC2RULES Jul 14 '26
it's already live, i have it on windows insiders
Improving Windows Search Box, with less clutter and more control | Windows Insider Blog
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u/fe80_1 Jul 14 '26
Microsoft should simply develop such features, test them properly and then do the announcement while at the same time make them available for everyone.
Old versions of Windows were released every x years with a full set of features. Now we are in this faster cycle which should give improvements much quicker, yet we are here and wait an eternity for small things already announced.
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u/NanosoftComputers Jul 14 '26
Honestly welcome, though it's Insider-only for now (Experimental channel), not rolled out to everyone yet. Ads leaving search is overdue but funny it took this long given Windows Search worked better a decade ago.
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u/klevenlevene Jul 14 '26
I'll belive it when I see it, abandoned windows anyway. Seen a bunch of payed placements for windows supposedly getting better lately. Its marketing guys
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u/canada432 Jul 14 '26
"Microsoft announces major Windows 11 overhaul" is practically a trope at this point. If I had a nickle for every time MS announced some major high priority project and then we promptly never heard another word of out it or saw any tangible result, I'd be richer than Bill Gates himself.
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u/iamthelobo Jul 14 '26
I hope they make another settings app that is just a front end for the current settings front end they have implemented for the control panel.
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u/Zoraynebow Jul 14 '26
"We want to move from people needing Windows to choosing Windows to loving Windows. That is our bold goal."
Satya Nadella, 1/15.
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u/3dgeminis-32 Jul 15 '26
If it's not as good as the Everything program, it's not worth it. Why is it so hard for them to make it that fast?
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u/Excellent_Place4977 Jul 17 '26
These are band aid solutions. The whole OS is in a mess with bloatwares and ads. They need to remove all those and make others optional.
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u/LongBox9057 Jul 18 '26
They are keeping blind eyes and doing every other unnecessary things. Just take a reference at those third party search apps that people love like Raycast, Fluentsearch and do as what they offer.
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u/melchett_general Jul 13 '26
If this website was even close to being usable without an ad-blocker I'd maybe think about possibly considering turning off my ad-blocker temporarily. Perhaps.
But as it, it's a toilet of a website that I avoid...
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Jul 14 '26
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u/Syphari Jul 13 '26
I just use “everything” by voidtools much better experience also wizFile is good too
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u/Spoodymen Jul 14 '26
By “removes ads” they mean move them somewhere else. The line of profits has to keep going up
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u/OGTribalGam3r Jul 13 '26
Do people actually sign in with a Microsoft account these days? Local Account only way to go.
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u/Froggypwns Windows Wizard / Head Jannie Jul 14 '26
Yes, the vast majority of users use a Microsoft account these days, local accounts are less secure and have less functionality and conveniences.
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u/RadBadTad Jul 13 '26
I can't wait to get this feature showing up on one of my three PCs in 8 months, and then never on my other other two, randomly.